Wendell Broussard (The Dean) doesn't post on here, but if you spend any time at Desert Rock Sports you will likely meet him, he's there almost every day. I can learn more talking to Wendell for an hour then days on the rock. Have also been honored to climb with him a few times. He's happy to take anyone out just about any time. In his 70s and still can climb a lot of us into the ground.

One of my favorite stories with Wendell was when we were climbing at Brass Wall. A visiting couple had just finished Topless Twins and were enthusing to Wendell about the route.

He let them go on for a while, then grins and shrugs and says "Yeah, I thought it was pretty good when I put it up in '86...."

Harrison used to climb at the gym a lot, but I haven't been there in a long time so I am not sure what he is up to these days, I know he was under the weather for a while. Always been cool to me when I have talked to him.

You'll need a copy of the Handren guidebook if you don't have one.
It's got some excellent historical information concerning climbing in the area which makes it an even sweeter guidebook. It's not a bad place to start.

I found this cool thing on an approach to the Blood Wall on the Cactus Flower Tower. A welded chainlink to a sharpened screw with goldline girthed to it. I would love to know who made this thing. George and Joanne didn't know.

Red Rock Relic 1

Credit: Texplorer

Found this cool hand drilled out hex complete with goldline and steel rap ring on a recon day with Joseph Healy and Larry DeAngelo. We had hiked up past the Basin Wall on Wilson and were coming down a gulley on the face to the soutch of Lady Wilson's Cleavage. I did some sketchy downclimbing to be able to retrieve this thing but it was worth it. George Urioste had said it looked like something guy he used to know would do that was also a cyclist. I have forgotten the name. Still a pretty cool find.

Dude, that was sketchy all the way up, and ridiculously sketchy coming down. I'm not even going to get into the tale of how we ended up heading up there with a single 7.8mm and a handful of gear, or how we were lucky to still have our shoe laces when we got down after using up our slings on all the manky non-load-bearing shrubberies.

Texplorer: I have forgotten the name.

I believe Joanne said 'Max' and meant it in sort of a 'Mad Max' sort of way...

These pics are from the first continuous ascent of Eagle Dance in 1980. Jorge and Joanne had just put it up over several efforts and were finishing up their work establishing Levitation 29 while we were giving this, their other classic route, a big nod of approval. The camera I took these pics with was an old el cheepo Instamatic - I really was a dirtbag and couldn't afford a real camera - that ended up in the detritus of my climbing gear for almost two decades before I refound it and had the film developed.
That trip, that had us doing Eagle Dance as well as putting up the Resolution Arete, Gwondonaland Boogie and a bundle of other fair to middling routes, has almost no photographic record. To my knowledge only these and a few others exist.